Dark Night's Shine
by mcsnellies
Summary: He wanted a challenge; she wanted an escape from her cruel fiance. Rated M for strong language, intense violence, and drug usage. A/N: This is rewritten, solo version of "Something's Shining in the Dark".
1. Chapter 1

Okay, this is by far the worst thing could've happened to her. She had eluded InuYasha's wraths more times than she could count. If she could do that, then she can elude these tortures, inflicted by this damned man. Honestly, she could blame anybody but she knew she had nobody to blame but herself for getting into this mess_._

Like any woman that dreamt of happy ending and a knight in shining armor to sweep her off her feet, she fell in love (thankfully, not madly as she once was with a certain dog-eared hanyou), with a gentleman that was _almost_ like a knight in shining armor.

Oh, was she so wrong about him. As soon as he asked her to marry him and become his fiancé she agreed, he eventually lost his façade of a gentleman and became a cruel person she didn't know he'd be. He had fooled everyone, including her own overprotective younger brother, Souta.

She thought InuYasha's temper was bad, his was worst.

She sighed, winced as the small bruises on her nimble arms started to hurt once again. While her fiancé wasn't much of an abuser (fortunately for her), he still hurt her with his words. Something she thought she was immune to. She knew he would get worst if she married him. She needed a way out… Fast.

But how would one escape a man who had many connections? He was a ringleader of drug dealers, after all.

"Kagome, you wench! We need to go! Hurry up already!" A voice with a cruel ring to it, shouted at a flinching woman in front of her vanity mirror. She hesitantly obeyed as she rushed to applying simple makeup on her face and covered up any visible bruises.

She couldn't understand it. Why couldn't she fight back? Why couldn't her power work against him? After years of fighting demons in the past, she had learned to fight and became tougher than three strong men combined; yet she was as weak as a fragile babe.

Was there something about Rue she didn't know yet?

She was determined to find out.

"_KAGOME_!" She sat up and ran out of her room, obeying him. If this didn't work, she would always reveal his dealing with drugs. It was better to be shot to death than being beat to death anyway.

She ran out of the fancy hotel, which did not suit her tastes, and ran up to him as the man looked at her attires in approval. He nodded and pushed her out of the lobby room to outside and into the limo to attend the fundraising party hosted by the Wayne Foundation Building. They had arrived to Gotham City just a week ago so Rue could meet his 'friends' and to show her off.

She remained silent and looked away from her fiancé and paid close attention to the buildings and people as they passed by her window. Suddenly, the limo stopped as the sound of loud sirens appeared. She pressed a button to open the window and looked out and saw a person with a black, whispering cape and that looked almost like a bat sending somebody on the ground. She barely registered her fiancé's cursing and could only concentrate on that person.

Suddenly, that man in the bat uniform looked at her and she swore she saw him smiled at her. "Kagome, close that window! We are taking a longer route. This road was blocked anyway." Rue said irritably, somehow knowing she had a sudden interest in Batman. "Rue… Who is he?"

"Him? He's Batman. He's well known in this blasted city, you know, for saving it a lot of times or something. I would much prefer to have Gotham City burned to the ground. That time will soon come anyway."

She frowned, knowing he was up to something. But she couldn't do anything about it either way. This was one time she would actually want to be rescued from, as much she hated to admit it.

-SSITD-

He sighed as he took off his armor and put on his tuxedo. "Master Bruce, the party is starting." His family long-time butler, Alfred Pennyworth, told him as he helped his young master to put on his jacket. "Yes, yes, I know, Alfred." He sighed, the thought of that beautiful dark-haired, blue-eyed maiden still stuck in his mind.

"Alright then, Master Bruce. I shall ready the vehicle then." Alfred smiled, seeing him distant in his mind. It seemed as if he had someone in his mind. His butler left the bat cave and readied himself to be his chauffeur once again.

He sighed, and too left his bat cave and went into his home, said his greeting to his ward, Dick and ignored Barbara on the most part. While Barbara was a good friend and good sidekick to have, she had started to annoy him with her recent flirting and her biting comments to some of his "girlfriends/dates". It was just hormones going on, he decided, since he felt only friendliness with her, nothing went beyond that. He was hoping that that girl would get over her ridiculous "crush" on him soon.

He then glanced at the grandfather clock and quickly left, knowing he would be late… again.

His butler, once again, took a role as a chauffeur and drove him to his building, Wayne Foundation Building. He told Alfred he'd call him and waved goodbye to him and entered the building. He stepped up on the stage, apologized about his being tardy and told the attendees to help the children by giving the money to them, the hospital, and the families of poor. After that, he cracked some jokes about himself, which they laughed at, and told them to have some fun and stepped off the stage after they gave him a standing ovation.

He help himself to have a cup of red wine as the women and his acquaintances went after him, women trying to threw themselves at him and the acquaintances asked him some personal questions. He smiled and tried his best to elude it all by telling each woman that he wasn't interested and answered somequestions to get them to leave him alone.

Until a same woman he saw earlier walked past him. It was the same woman he had caught staring at him when he defeated one of Joker's henchmen. She was even more beautiful than he thought. He decided to tell them he wanted to talk to somebody and he'd be back as he followed that woman into the elevator.

Thankfully, the elevator was empty except for him and that appealing woman.

"So… How are you?" He tried to break the silence as the woman chose the button that went up to the rooftop. The woman smiled back, though nervously, "Fine. Just needed some fresh air is all." He quickly looked at her attires and mentally liked her choice of outfit.

She wore a short-sleeved dark blue dress that went right below her knees. Her black shiny leather boots, the stiletto heels at least three inches high, covered most parts of her lower legs, leaving barely any skin to be shown between her boots and her dress. She wore bangles of gold chain necklaces, giving her a modest semi u-cut, showing a bit of her cleavage. She had a pair of small dangling gold heart earrings that matched her necklaces.

She barely wore any makeup, only a pink lip-gloss on her lips and some mascara. She wore a simple outfit, a few jewelries, and some simple makeup. He liked girls that didn't show off.

And her long ebony hair was gorgeous. Her skin was pale sun-kissed color, a perfect color for her. She wasn't too skinny, like some girls were, and she wasn't too showy either.

She was… perfect.

"You know who I am right?" He smiled as she suddenly caught himself looking at her.

"Yes, Bruce Wayne."

"But I don't know your name. Can I?"

"Kagome Higarashi." He seemed confused at the moment but looking at her Asian features and listening to her accent thick of that different place, he realized that then, "Ah, then you're from somewhere in Japan?"

"That's right." She nodded as the elevator took the stop on the rooftop. She walked out, followed by him. After a while, their conversation soon grew comfortable and it came to the worst. "My fiancé… Keep this as secret, will you?"

"Yes. I will keep it to myself, of course." He smiled.

-SSITD-

She knew he was that Batman. It was really obvious, really, or at least for her. After these years spent by fighting demons, she found her talent to see though disguises. She decided to tell him, in hints, about her fiancé.

"My fiancé, Rue… He's a ringleader."

"Huh?" He didn't understand what she was talking about.

"And one day… _Bang_! I'll be gone, just like that." She smiled as the dawn of realization sunk into his head. "Oh! I should be getting back. Bye."

-SSITD-

"A woman like her-" He murmured to himself as she disappeared into the darkness of the elevator. "-doesn't deserve to die." He sipped his nearly empty drink, sincerely hoping she was lying. After all, she did confuse him and insulted him several times without any mean to piss him off during in their conversation.

He glanced up in the night sky and saw the bat signal. "Well, time for me to get to work then." He decided he'd look into this matter later.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been nearly two months since Bruce had last saw the raven-haired beauty named Kagome Higurashi. He had looked into her mysterious boyfriend, Rue Takashi. It turned out he was the sole survivor of his father, Katsu Takashi. The Takashi clan was one of the five noble families of Japan, which might have something to do with why all of Bruce's searches for anything else on Rue were turning up fruitless. Bruce sighed and murmured to himself, "Why do things always have to be done with force nowadays?"

-DKS-

Batman slammed the thug's head on the hood of the car again. "Tell me what you know about Rue Takashi!" His voice was low and gravelly now, to prevent anyone from having a chance of figuring out his true identity. There was a loud popping sound as the man's shoulder popped out of joint.

Normally, Bruce was never this rough with thugs. Sure a broken finger or cracked rib was inevitable sometimes, but a man has a reputation to look after. It didn't help that most of the press called him a criminal as it was. "I swear man, I don't know nothing! Even if I did, Rue would kill me if I told ya anything! Please just let me go, I ain't done nothing wrong!"

"All I'm asking for is one name, and I'll forget about that bag of dope in your saddle bag on that bike. Or would you rather it be trashed to?"

"Please man, not the bike! That's the only thing I have in my name right now."

"Then give me a name that can tell me more about Rue Takashi!" Batman's voice was booming with bass now. He was quickly losing patience with this man. He held the man down to the hood of car with one gloved hand while the other grabbed a finger and slowly bent it back. "I'll start breaking each finger until I get a name. And when I run out fingers, I'll trash your bike. Now give me a damn name!"

Batman slowly bent back the thug's index finger until it a sickening crack was heard. "Damn! I'm not telling you anything. Sidney would kill me if-"The thug stopped mid-sentence, realizing a second too late that he had said far too much. The dark knight lifted the pressure off of the man's neck.

He was preparing to bolt when Bruce leaned down close and whispered, "Sidney who?" He groaned.

-DKS-

Kagome sat at the large window in their luxurious hotel room. She gazed out past the valet parking and the vast stretch of designer brand stores, past the crumbling buildings, past even the city limits. She gazed simply at, nothing. All she was able to think about were her parting words with Bruce Wayne.

_"My fiancé, Rue… He's a ringleader."_

_"Uh?" He didn't understand what she was talking about._

_"And one day… Bang! I'll be gone, just like that." She smiled as the dawn of realization sank into his head. "Oh! I should be getting back. Bye."_

She smiled once again at his flabbergasted expression when she first told him about her fiancé. Then, her smile disappeared when she realized just how furious Rue would be if he ever found that she had been 'flirting' with another man. He seemed to be getting more irritable easier these days. "Must be a big deal about to go down," Kagome thought.

There was a loud knocking at the door. "I have it," Kagome shouted as she walked to the door.

"Where the hell is Rue at Kagome?" A battered man stood at the door. His left arm was in a sling, two fingers in casts, broke nose, and he had a large shiner.

"He's in the office, but it wouldn't be smart to, ouch, you could watch wear you're going asshole!" She watched the man walk briskly into Rue's office without even knocking. Even when her fiancé wasn't shouting at her, Kagome still couldn't help but cringe, as she was doing now.

She scooted closer to the door so she could listen in. The man recounted the time he was with Batman. "I swear Rue; I didn't tell him anything about the big deal going down next weekend. He just took the dope out of my bag and burned it."

"Okay good job," Rue said, lighting a cigarette.

"But, Sidney's name did slip." Rue's cigarette fell in the ash tray, stirring a small cloud of ashes. "I'm sorry boss, he broke my finger and all I said was that Sidney would kill me if I told him anything. Boss, please don't kill me."

"Unfortunately for Sidney, he won't have the honor of killing you. That belongs to me," Rue said as he pulled out a silver Berretta nine-millimeter. The shot rang out clearly, but in Gotham that was common these days. Rue picked back up his cigarette and pulled a drag off of it. "Seems like the Bat has decided to get involved in our affairs. That might change up things a bit." Rue tapped the ashes off onto his dead thug's face. "Well, might as well call someone up to clean this mess before it sets into the carpet."

Kagome got up and went into the bathroom before her fiancé left his office. She was breathing hard at the sudden overload of information. The water that was swimming behind her eyes threatened to spill as she remembered the gunshot's clear echo. But, as much as she hated it, maybe Bruce would come and save her from her own doings.

-DKS-

Bruce was quickly growing tired of having to go through various rings of small fry dope-heads to try and just get to Sydney. Not only was it troublesome, but most of the time, they didn't even remember who they were. But finally, he hit gold.

"Look here, I've spent all night trying to find you, and now, you're going to tell me everything you know about Rue." Batman said with a threatening edge to his voice.

A short, pudgy man wearing a white suit with a matching fedora backed up against the wall behind him. He had a small and trim goatee surrounding the lips that had just curled around an illegal Cuban cigar. "If I were to tell you everything I know about Rue, and you didn't kill me, then Rue would. So, either way it goes, I'm screwed. So, go ahead and break all of my limbs or whatever it is you vigilantes do nowadays. I don't care because like I said, I'm screwed either ways." He took a long drag off of the blunt and blew it out in Batman's face.

Batman picked up Sydney and slammed him into the wall while holding onto his collars. "You think Rue knows how to make people suffer. Don't. Make. Me. Laugh. I have a black belt in virtually every type of martial arts. Rue only knows temporary pain. Me, I can hit you in a specific nerve and you will suffer for the next ten years even after a doctor looks at it. I can make you bleed from any open spot on your body if I so chose to Sydney and that includes the eyes, nostrils, and ears. Do you really want to go through all of that?"

A momentary glint of fear flashed through Sydney's beady green eyes before he said, "Well, if it's bad as you're making it sound, then maybe I will just a bullet to the head from myself or Rue."

Batman latched his forefinger in the webbing of Sydney's thumb and forefinger. "Talk," he said as he slowly added more and more pressure to the point. The much smaller man groaned but he didn't say anything. "Well, since you don't want to talk, let's make it a little more permanent ." Batman then placed his hand over Sydney's lower jaw and slowly began to twist. "Don't you dare think for one moment I won't rip your mandible off. It might do the world a favor if I did."

The smaller man wrapped his pudgy hands around Batman's wrist and tried to pull his hand off, but it was to no avail. "I'll talk!"

Batman released most of the pressure off of Sydney's lower jaw, "What was that?"

"I said, 'I'll talk'!"

Batman pushed the smaller man backwards, and Sydney fell butt first into a puddle of mud. He was rubbing his jaw when suddenly a dark shadow enveloped him. "You said you'll talk so let's hear it."

"Rue Takashi, he's one of the world's biggest suppliers in dope, more specifically heroin and marijuana, but I'm sure you know that. The only reason he's in Gotham right now is because he's the number one supplier. Normally, he just sends me or his bodyguard, I believe the guy's name is Cloud or something like that, but someone has been selling out on him, and he wanted to get his hands a little dirt on this job.

"Anyway, he's staying in The Tribeca Grand Hotel, on the other side of town. His room number is 102. I swear man, if he finds out I told you anything, he's gonna kill me."

Batman's voice was low and gravelly again. "Tell me more about this big deal."

"I've already told you more than enough to get everyone in this town killed." Batman's hand was wrapped around Sydney's jowls again. "Okay!" The pressure was immediately gone again. "Rue is planning on expanding his grounds in illegal drugs. He's planning on killing another drug lord here. His name is Sephiroth Jenova. He has a large meth lab in some warehouse in a shadier part of town. Town talk has been saying that he heard about the boss coming here, so he started upping his security where even a snake couldn't slither in without being shot at least fifteen times.

"But, like I was saying, Rue is planning on killing Jenova, and making himself the number one supplier in all of North America, and possibly the whole Western Hemisphere. He has ties everywhere in the world, and if you take him down, you're going to have a bounty on your head that could buy a palace anywhere in the world. Why do you want to take Rue down so badly all of a sudden? You've had to have known about him for some time now, since he is, well was before Jenova came along, the number supplier for dope."

"Well now, I have an even bigger reason for wanting that kind of scum out. If his ties in the drug business are as numerous as you're making him sound, then by taking him out I'm going to be doing this city a favor."

Sydney finally got up and started brushing some of the mud off of his butt, and then picked up his fedora and placed it back on his head. ""Well, you know what hotel Rue is staying in and where at, so why don't you go ahead and nail him now? Get this whole fiasco over with."

"No, I'm going to trail Rue for a while, wait for the deal to go down so I can take out both him and this Sephiroth. Do you have a profile I could go on to know what I'm looking for, and don't make break any bones for this information. I'm already sick of you as it is."

There was a glint of fear that had come in Sydney's eyes when Batman had spoke of waiting for the deal to go down, but it had long ago been replaced by a steel glint of hatred. The smaller man spoke, "You want be able to miss him." Sydney looked down, " He has long silver hair, teal colored eyes, and he's a little over six foot tall. He's a type of guy you don't want to fuck with man. He doesn't mind getting his hands dirty at all. He keeps some long sword around, and he likes to chop people down with it. I mean, this guy can cut through anybody without getting a drop of blood on himself."

The short man looked up, but the Dark Knight was gone. Sydney looked around at all the rooftops, sure that Batman was looking down at him, watching. "You know what Batman, fuck you! I hope you burn in hell!" Sydney looked down and scowled at the stain that was sure to set in on his bottom. His scowled deepened for a moment, but then he sat down beside the mud hole. He reached on the inside of his coat and pulled out a rectangular silver case that had inscribed on the side, 'To Sydney, the Only Man I've Ever Loved'. Sydney scoffed at the present from his boss, but pulled another cigar out of the case, and slowly began to smoke it, reveling in the toxins he was putting in his body.

After he had finished his cigar, Sydney pulled out his gun, a Ruger .357 magnum. He looked at it for a moment, admiring the intricate designs that were etched throughout the barrel and on the stock of his gun. The next thing Sydney knew, he tasted the cold steel of the barrel, and then he saw a bright light before his life faded out.

-DKS-

Batman put down his binoculars after watching Rue for about an hour. This was the worst part of his job, Bruce determined. The late nights that he put into reconnaissance. He then saw the woman that he was doing all of this for. He breathed her name, letting the taste of it sit on his tongue for a moment before grappling off of the rooftop and leaving.

-DKS-

A man wearing a leather jacket, a pair of faded blue jeans, and a baseball cap turned backwards is walking down the street that has Rue's hotel on it. He is sniffing the air, and looking around a bit. Other than the sniffing, you would have looked over this man in a heartbeat, assuming he is just another person walking down the street until you look down, and you notice he isn't wearing any shoes. Then, you would probably remember you're living in a city of freaks and this man is just another one of the reasons you're saving up money to leave town.

You have no real reason to remember a man of this sort of stature, about 6'1", maybe 6'2", but if you look into his eyes, you would remember those, because eyes like that are rare. This man's eyes are the color of melted amber, and you can tell that they aren't contact lenses. If anybody was to ask you how you know this, you would just simply shrug with the simple answer of, I just do. Something else that you can tell about this man is that he is some form of ex-military from the arrogant swagger in his walk. From under the ball cap, we see that he has shoulder length silver hair.

This man has now stopped by a wall and props up against it, reaching into the inside of his jacket pocket and pulls a battered pack of cigarettes out. He has just lit it up when a policeman comes up beside him, sniffing the smoke and asking for identification. The officer tries pronouncing the man's name, but has far too much difficulty with it, so the snuffs the cigarette out on the side of the wall and exhales the smoke. "The name is Inuyasha Taisho."


	3. Chapter 3

Kagome sighed as she wandered aimlessly through the hotel, forbidden from leaving. It wasn't long until she bumped into Cloud, the bodyguard. She liked him just fine, although she did pity him for working under Rue. "Oh Mr. Strife. How are you?"

Startled, the tall spiky blond male looked back to the boss's fiancé, and instantly bowed lightly to her, "Oh, madam. I'm…alright." He nervously murmured out to her, his sea green eyes looked away from the petite woman.

Kagome smiled softly and since there was nobody in the lobby hall of the hotel, she told him, "Its okay, you know. I know you're trying to help me by tipping off some folks. But really, you don't have to do that."

"…!" Cloud looked up in panic, "H-how did you…"

"Trust me; I'm not that stupid…Which I might be, for falling for Rue's charms… However, I do have a good set of eyes and ears." Kagome then suddenly frowned, "You better get out while you still can. Rue, sooner or later, will find out." She looked at a framed painting on a wall, her hands clasped behind her back, seemingly lost in thoughts. Cloud sighed, looked at the floor, unsure of what to do.

At first, he only came to work for Rue, unaware of what the man did for a living, believing that he was a good and popular businessman, like everyone else thought he was. But over time, he had gained trust of Rue and he was tossed into the dangerous life of the drug supplier unwillingly. Cloud soon grew disgusted with him and also felt guilty for the lives that the drugs had ruined, so it wasn't long until he started working with a pair of oddball PIs named Barret Wallace and Cid Highwind and joined a group. Of course, the kind woman is also a reason for his betrayal of his own boss.

She didn't deserved to be dragged through this.

Sure, Rue had some odd, twisted sense of love for her but Cloud was sure as hell that Kagome, once upon a time, may had loved him, but no longer held any fondness for her fiancé. He knew she wanted out but she couldn't risk it for the sake of her family and friends.

Cloud's lips thinned and looked up with confidence, "Don't worry, miss, we'll get out of this."

Kagome looked away from that painting and looked at him, "You think so?" She gave him a tiny smile, "Must be nice to have a pipe dream, Mr. Strife…" Kagome then said a farewell to him and walk past him. She always made sure to say her farewells because she did not know whether it would be her last day or not.

"But it's not a pipe dream. I promise." Cloud said to himself quietly. "Not if I don't want it to be."

-DKS-

"Bloody shit, man! Are we sure we're going after this shit?" The thick white smoke went out through his clenched teeth. His partner could tell he hadn't bathe and shaved in a few days, from the thick stubbles on his jaw and the grease in his hair, all in due of a case they got.

"Aw, shuddup, Cid-fool! I wanna go after him! After what he did to my family, me, and my best friend, I'm going after him! For my Marlene!" The dark-skinned, large bulky male bellowed out, waving around his metal artificial arm, "We ain't stopping the train if we're on it, my man!"

Cid grunted, used to his antics, even if it had already attracted eyes in the bar they're in. "Aw, shut the fuckin' hell up, Barret." He gulped down his cheap whiskey, the cancer stick burning up to the filter. "'Side, if what Strife said to us is true, Takashi may be the guy we're after."

"If it wasn't bad en'gh, he reckoned that he's going after Jenova, The Heartless Soldier. There's going to be a big hellva war in Gotham City." Barret slammed his real hand onto the table, a noticeable sneer on his dark face, "Going to be a bloody hell for real, man. Not even the Batman could stop it."

Cid agreed with him, "Because it's going to be a big out war in our big, good, old United States of A."

It was good thing that everybody in the bar, the Seventh Heaven, knew enough to keep their mouths shut, because they too are trying to find a way to stop the drug dealing, most especially Sephiroth himself, because of what he had done to everybody.

Cloud Strife was one of the newest members of the group but he was the most important one out of the all, because he carried very valuable information from Rue. Barret was the one who started it, the anti-'drug' group called AVALANCHE. Why he had called it, nobody knows. Not even himself.

The next person who had joined was a strange male named InuYasha Taisho. He was a bit odd looking, what with his hair and all. No one is sure why he had joined; just that a woman who he knew and loved was trapped in a relationship she didn't want, with a 'Big Man' himself. He was just filled with secrecy. Currently, he went out late again, looking for that woman he loved, mostly likely to have a ticket for loitering again by now. But they still kept him because he always got information they needed to keep on going.

Cid, Barret's closest friend, was the next to join. Like him, he used to be in military, the Air Force, to be exact while Barret was in the Navy. Cid had a thing for airplanes and all things flying. He barely remembered that Cid wanted to fly in space when they were kids. Anyway, he's tough little bastard and could be very persistence if he need to be.

"Blah, fuck. So what's our next step, o' buddy?" Barret grunted as he sipped his can of beer, ignoring the small rut he had made into the wood of the table, knowing that the bartender was going to scorn him about it later.

"Eh, that's the problem. We don't know. I guess we'll to keep work at it, the investigation, I mean. Maybe they'll have some boat and we'll go at it like the Boston Tea Party or some'g." Cid grunted as he crushed his finished cigarette into ashtray and draw out the new one from his crushed pack. "You have a light?"

Barret grunted and toss him a lighter from his jacket's pocket. "Well, I guess it's about time to gather up the folks and have a meeting to see what they think. Sometimes, they got one helluva good idea." Cid agreed. They did not want to see their country go up in the flame just from the drug lords' brawl over their position of being the number one. They knew one thing.

-DKS-

"Barbara, what are you doing?" The Batman frowned as Batgirl appeared on the rooftop with him, just as he was keeping an eye on the building Rue was in. Batgirl frowned at his expression, it seemed like he actually did not want her or anyone else even. "Well, you have been acting a little weird lately… So I'm a little worried." She tried to assure him that she just was there to check on him, but Batman definitely was in the bad mood, or at least because of a _certain_ someone was disputing his mission.

She knew one thing; whatever or _whoever_ compelled him to go after a seemly innocuous group that was simply supplying drugs but she forgot one thing as long she had been working with the Bat family. _**Never, ever judge the book by its cover.**___Of course she didn't know much of the details, just that he was going after somebody. Alfred, although he knew more, only gave her and Dick vague facts and that it was personal for him and warned them to stay out of his businesses. Dick, of course, heeded the warning but Barbara, being the idiot, love-sick teenaged girl she was, did not and had stubbornly gone after the Batman.

The Dark Knight presently wanted to be left. He just wants to save a certain lovely maiden, was that too much to ask for? But of course, Barbara just _had_ to drop by!

That damned, stupid girl. He should have never accepted her as his sidekick in the first place.

"Go. I prefer to do it by myself. Why don't you take care of some business _elsewhere_?" He punctured that word with heavy stress, the stern deep within his voice.

Batgirl growled out, "Was this some bitch making you do this?!"

And _of course_, she just _had_ to make it personal for herself. Batman narrowed his hidden eyes on her and warned her, "Do not make this even worse for yourself, Barbara. You should know that every time you make it your business, it usually does not work out very well in the end. _Go_."

The Batgirl growled out and stomped her foot childishly, "I don't want to!"

Batman glared at her, "Fine, then you're no longer my partner. You'll be strip of your attires and your weapons by the morning. I'll call your father to pick you up." He was chillingly calm, yet brutally rejected her at the same time and called Dick to take her away from him, making a mental note to call Lieutenant Gordon later. Bruce knew it was a rushed decision but he had been debating about it a lot recently. Barbara had not been doing too good fighting crimes as of late, letting the offenders get away quite a bit. He knew Gordon was not happy with her as well.

"What?! You can't do this to me!" Batgirl wailed out and Batman cursed out, realizing that she'll attract attention.

"Barbara, you're jeopardizing everything! Shut up!" He hissed out through his clenched teeth, his masked face twisted into anger.

Just in time, Dick, as Nightwing, appeared and immediately went after Barbara and clasped her mouth with his hands, "Sorry, boss, I'll take care of her." As much he wanted to help Batman, he knew it was personal and was smart enough to stay out of this unless he asked him to help him. But Barbara, however… It was the last straw for the Dark Knight. He basically fired her, in the better lack of word. As much as Dick was fond of her, he knew they could never be just because she was much too distracted with Batman.

Barbara sobbed, muffled from the hand over her mouth, thick tears running over her cheeks. Dick wanted to empathize with her but realized that she brought it on herself. He then knocked her out cold with a pressure point in her neck and tossed her over his shoulder and quietly left the Batman alone.

Batman took several deep breaths to calm down, now realizing that everything had just happened over the matter of minutes and that some thugs just heard them. Batman quietly left his perch and headed over to a different rooftop.

An hour passed, his mind no longer troubled with Barbara incident and something was happening. He grabbed his binoculars and spotted what he believed was Rue discussing, perhaps business, with a round man and a slender, flashy woman. They looked familiar to him.

"Wait."

"_Hello, Mr. Wayne! I would love to make acquaintance with you! My name is Scarlett…"_It was that same woman who tried to get into his pants from the day he first met the lovely, gentle woman named Kagome. Of course that woman had that round man with her but he couldn't remember what his name was. He made another mental note to look them up later. But now, Batman was curious of what they were talking about.

He frowned for several seconds but he turned his hearing equipment on and focused them onto the trio, making sure to drown out of all of the usual city noise. The hearing equipment was the newest technology his company just created, first designed to assist those without hearing, but naturally, Batman added them to his attire. But now was the time to test them out.

"- it a go, Mr. Takahashi." The woman stated out, looking at the round man,

"Eh, sounded fun. I'm not very fond of Eastern countries, too damn weird….But boss, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean your fiancé did come from there. If I remember it right, she was a fucking force to be reckoned with." The round man bounced from his foot to another, the amusement was plain to be seen on his fat face. The tall, slender man, who Batman knew it to be Rue, the very man he was going after for the sake of the lovely Kagome, suddenly, in a blink of his eyes, kicked the round man into his stomach.

The fat man then fell back on the floor, rolling around like a ball as he was clenching his stomach. Rue scoffed at the pitiful sight the plump man was making, "I have told you time and time again about using language in my presence. And you are not to mention my Kagome in such laymen terms." The woman took a step back, fanning her red fan nervously all the while keeping her laughter in bay. Dear people above, Terrence is so damn funny when he's rolling around like an overflowed beach ball.

The Batman narrowed his eyes, after his surprise had worn off when Rue had kicked the chubby man's stomach. They said something about the Eastern countries… Wait. Are they going after the Eastern hemisphere as well?

Was this man truly trying to take over the world or something?

"With that aside, I do hope you're completing the arrangements for Sydney's funeral, Scarlett." Rue did not even take a look at the flushed woman-whore as he was lighting up his cigarette and took a deep breath of it. "Oh, yes. I believe it would be beautiful… that is if you approve of it, Mr. Takahashi." She breathed out, trying her best to ignore the scene the chunky man was making from the ground.

"Include the white roses and white roses only. I could care less about where we're burying him, much less tossing his body into a river." He mindlessly commended out as he watched blankly of the swirling of his cigarette's smoke drifted off into the night sky.

"Yes, boss." The hag woman purred out, failing at her latest attempt of seducing him. "So are you doing anything about his suicide? Investigate it at much less?" She mused, as she realized that Sydney's suicide was a bit odd.

Batman did not dwell much on the fact that he had driven a man to committed suicide, but really. It was his choice. But he still remained to see if he could learn more. "It doesn't matter. He made his choice and he was nothing more than a pawn in my game." Rue chillingly told them, ignoring Terrence's noises of his struggles to get up on his feet.

The cigarette burned brightly red as he took another deep breath of his addiction, walking back to the hotel. But as he was about to enter the building, he stopped and glanced briefly back to the duo, "Oh, yes, before I forget, exactly after a week after Sydney's funeral, I'll be marrying my darling Kagome so you best to prepare the wedding arrangements too. That's all." A nimble doorman opened the door for him and he coolly walked in, ignoring his useless pawns' response.

Batman then cursed out internally. So that means he would have to get her out before the wedding started. "Seems like it's only going to get harder before it gets better," he grumbled to himself, not liking the fact that there were so many setbacks he'd have to get through.

He then shifted so to move away from the hotel after he saw the duo had followed. His hearing equipment was not modified yet to hear through the thick wall. But he stopped when he saw someone on the rooftop, smiling at him. He gasped as he realized who it was and grappled his way over there.

Batman's feet made contact on the hotel's rooftop and found their way toward _her_. But soon, his logic caught up to him and stopped himself so he wouldn't make himself a fool. But she smiled and walked over to him, "Mr. Wayne, how are you?"

The Batman reeled back in surprise, not aware that she already knew his identity. His mouth was open, a show of his surprise.

The woman still smiled and looked up in the starless sky, "I already knew. But don't worry, I won't tell nobody. Why else do you think I told you who's my fiancé was?" Her bright brown eyes dulled, as she remembered who she belonged to was.

"Kagome, When's your wedding?"

"Exactly a week after the funeral, on a Monday." She sighed, her fingers pulled her gray turtleneck up to her lips to occupy herself from that thought. The Batman's lips thinned, unsure of what to do as he looked at the young Asian beauty. "You know-," She gave a dry, humorless chuckle, "-Rue is a pretty good actor. He sure fooled me."

"Kagome, I-"

He blinked as she looked away from the sky and interrupted him, "I have a friend and I think he would help you stop Rue and Sephiroth. Because if we don't… There's going to be wars everywhere in America and soon, it will spend everywhere across the Eastern countries as well as the southern countries. There will be no mercy for those who are neutral and innocent.

It doesn't matter whether if you have superpowers, all that will matter is your ability to cause wars or to stop them. It doesn't matter who wins, there will still be deaths. Mr. Wayne. No, Batman, please stop Rue. Stop Sephiroth… Just stop them." The twin of salty rivers then fell from her watery eyes as she choked back a sob. Batman remained in silence.

"And to think, he'll start a war with Jenova a day after I marry him." It was so quiet; the Batman was straining to hear her.

"Not if I could stop it, Kagome." He reached her cheek and brushed away the tears, noticed that her adorable nose was slightly red.

She gave him a watery smile, "I hope so…"

She passed something into his hand, "This is my instruction of how to get to a place my friend is in. He probably doesn't know how well I know what he had been doing. When you get there, do expect to see some hostility from some people. You may have to protect yourself at the start but try to not attract outside attention. They worked too hard keeping it a secret.

"They're a group called AVALANCHE and they had been following Sephiroth's tracks for some time now and just recently started following Rue's. Everyone in the group has a personal reason for being there so please don't probe them too much unless it is an absolute necessity… I'm not ordering you to do anything, but if you want to stop Rue and Jenova, they're the best people to go to."

He looked at the paper with an address, a few names, and some words on it. "Do you wish to be saved at all?"

"Yes, but I want you to save the people that don't deserve to lose their lives." Kagome sighed and heard someone was coming up and told him, "You better go now."


End file.
